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Rating: 
Summary: Boring
Review: Another author that fills the pages with inane conversations because the book is so lacking in a good plot.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun academic type mystery
Review: Bel Barret teaches writing at a community college in NJ. Her friend Vinny Vallone talks her into teaching a class of funeral director wannabes with him. Vinnie is murdered and it seems that most of the suspects are in the writing class. Bel risks her relationships and her life to solve the mystery.This was a pretty quick read and I enjoyed it. The characters and the setting are quirky and interesting. A good series.
Rating:
Summary: Fun academic type mystery
Review: Bel Barret teaches writing at a community college in NJ. Her friend Vinny Vallone talks her into teaching a class of funeral director wannabes with him. Vinnie is murdered and it seems that most of the suspects are in the writing class. Bel risks her relationships and her life to solve the mystery. This was a pretty quick read and I enjoyed it. The characters and the setting are quirky and interesting. A good series.
Rating:
Summary: A Great New Series! -- For women facing "change"
Review: I think this is a heroine for our times! This is not one of those young, pouty-lipped, long-legged, blondes with whom every other male character falls in love. This is a real character with whom you want to meet for lunch and dish the dirt. This will be one of those you pass on to other female friends of a "certain age." I don't think men will like this one. They just won't get it. I also like the use of letters and emails to start off each chapter. It really helps move the story.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining series
Review: Professor Bel Barrett is a nice woman and so are her friends, her children, and her mother whose brain cells just needed a slight realignment. Jane Isenberg perfectly captures the multi-cultural ambiance of a community college and the dedication of those who teach there. The mysteries in this series are solid and fun. Bel is obviously enduring the joys of menopause and her references to it throughout will strike a chord with the similarly afflicted. The grimy setting of Jersey City, New Jersey is not ideal, but Isenberg almost makes the place sound appealing. I even like the author's photo on the back page. Like I imagine Bel to look, Isenberg has the kind of face you want to see on your friends-kind, bright, and smiling. The series is a fun way to pass a rainy weekend.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining series
Review: Professor Bel Barrett is a nice woman and so are her friends, her children, and her mother whose brain cells just needed a slight realignment. Jane Isenberg perfectly captures the multi-cultural ambiance of a community college and the dedication of those who teach there. The mysteries in this series are solid and fun. Bel is obviously enduring the joys of menopause and her references to it throughout will strike a chord with the similarly afflicted. The grimy setting of Jersey City, New Jersey is not ideal, but Isenberg almost makes the place sound appealing. I even like the author's photo on the back page. Like I imagine Bel to look, Isenberg has the kind of face you want to see on your friends-kind, bright, and smiling. The series is a fun way to pass a rainy weekend.
Rating:
Summary: Teaching Can Be Murder
Review: The River's Edge Community College faculty is shocked when the body of part-time professor and funeral director Vinny Vallone is found floating in the Hudson River. English professor Bel Barrett is especially shocked, since she is co-teaching a course with Vinny. At first, rumors are that Vinny may have committe suicide, but the medical examiner finds that Vinny was killed by a blow to the head. When one of Bel's students becomes a prime suspect in the murder, she and her sleuthing friends Illuminada and Betty decide to investiage, in order to clear Bel's student Henry.
Meanwhile, Bel has lots of other personal problems to deal with. Her father dies suddenly of a heart attack, prompting Bel to move her octagenerian mother to New Jersey to live with her. Plus, Bel's daughter Rebecca has a major accident and ends up in the hospital. Finally, Bel is constantly worried about her son who is living in a kibbutz in Israel. Did I mention that Bel is having trouble with the man in her life, too? In spite of all these diversions, Bel and her friends try to get to the bottom of Vinny's murder.
Bel and her friends are just delightful. I disagree with the other reviewers who dismiss this book as boring. "Death in a Hot Flash" is another thoroughly enjoyable story about a woman "of a certain age." I definitely recommend this series!
Rating:
Summary: wry truth and delicious plot on every page
Review: This is the second Bel Barrett mystery by this grand author. Post-menopausal Bel, a professor in a community college in New Jersey, again makes me feel as if I have known her for years. Coping with students, children, newly-widowed mother and a pair of the best friends anyone could have, Bel comes alive in a way that few protagonists have done. Well Done!
Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: This was a fun, character-driven mystery featuring Bel Barrett, that menopausal professor with the two great friends. Bel ends up trying to find out who killed one her colleagues at the college. Could it be one of her students? Combine this with her father dying, mother coming to stay with her, son living in a kibbutz and what you have is a fun,well-thought out story. Just gotta love anyone that loves to munch on M&M's.
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